Just how in the hell do you rid an apartment/cat of fleas

[SethK28]

I have tried everything from flea bombs to carpet sprays and frontline on the cat and yet this place is still infested with fleas. HOW DO YOU GET RID OF THEM???? Im so tired of getting bitten on my ankles and the cat is in horrible agony, the damn things are crawling into his eyeballs. PLEASE HELP

 

[Hoober]

Have you seen a vet? They can usually prescibe some medication to take care of it.

 

[Lvis]

Get the cat dipped at the vet, and bomb again?

 

[Viper GTS]

Bomb the apt, microwave the cat.

The fleas will die long before the cat.



Viper GTS

 

[notfred]

We keep our cat indoors all the time, she has no opportunity to get fleas in the first place.

 

[Electric Amish]

We don't have fleas in Utah.

amish

 

[idNut]

Flea bath/collar?

 

[sharkeeper]

Advantage

Go to your vet and ask for it. It's expensive (3 month supply is typically $40) but well worth it.

Getting rid of the animal will not get rid of the fleas! YOU will become the host and suddenly you will notice the fleas 10x more than you did when you had your animals! :Q

Advantage works. Been using it for years. Never see a flea on either the cat or dog.

-DAK-

 

[SethK28]

Thats the thing, the cat does not EVER go outdoors and has NEVER had fleas before this, even this same apratment. Dunno how the hell he got them

 

[Armitage]

Had this bad in an apartment in LA ... if you wore white socks and walked on the carpet, you could see em all on your socks
Basically, with flea bombs, etc. Once is not enough, because it only kills the currently active/alive fleas ... the eggs and larvae are still in the carpet. You need to bomb the apartment & flea-dip the cat every couple days (forgot the recommended interval) for about a month. Steam cleaning the carpet with flea-shampoo in the mix helps also. And keep a new flea collar on the animals.
If it's an option, get rid of some carpets in favor of a different type of flooring ... probably not an option if you're renting, but if the landlord is considering replacing carpeting soon...

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: SethK28
Thats the thing, the cat does not EVER go outdoors and has NEVER had fleas before this, even this same apratment. Dunno how the hell he got them

Maybe it's you that has fleas, and not the cat. Do you go outdoors? Pet any dogs?

 

[Cerebus451]

I had this problem a few years back. Family came to visit and the dogs went outside and brought fleas inside to the cat. What a mess.

For the cat, Advantage will do the trick to kill the fleas and keep them off the cat. Will take a couple of days. For those in the apartment, vacuum all the carpets and any upholstered furniture very well. Fleas don't live long, but lay a ton of eggs. Vacuuming the carpets will suck up many of the eggs. Also, find something like this. You should be able to find similar products at Target/Wal*Mart/etc. Basically it is a flat piece with fly paper and a low-wattage bulb. You plug it in at night and the fleas are drawn to the light and get stuck on the fly paper. Works wonders (and is kind of neat to watch the fleas hopping over to the light at night). A combination of one of those with the vacuuming and the fleas were gone in about 2 days.

 

[SethK28]

Thats the thing, the cat does not EVER go outdoors and has NEVER had fleas before this, even this same apratment. Dunno how the hell he got them

 

[GroundZero]

Originally posted by: SethK28
Thats the thing, the cat does not EVER go outdoors and has NEVER had fleas before this, even this same apratment. Dunno how the hell he got them

most likely one hitched a ride home on you, you can pick up fleas from just about anywhere.
the grass, a friends house, a friend, an enemy, a coworker, a neighbor...

 

[Graphicd00d]

shave the cat and burn the carpet

 

[TheHeartless]

Clean everything....and i mean EVERYTHING....also clean the cat, and get some flea stuff for it....

 

[anno]

Originally posted by: notfred
We keep our cat indoors all the time, she has no opportunity to get fleas in the first place.

this is definitely NOT a guarantee (I have indoor cats too).

you need to vaccuum like daily.. and if it's a vaccuum with bags, dump the bag daily.. don't keep those sucked up fleas in your house. you probably need to shampoo the carpet, actually. every inch of it, not just around the furniture.. there's fleas under the sofa too.

but.. the vet flea stuff you put on the cat will win eventually..

when we moved in to this house.. it was july. the first day we came over after the previous owners had moved out, we had no sooner walked in the door than we were all covered in fleas. you could see them hopping around! I swear they held the 1991 north american flea convention in my house. we bombed and fogged and bombed and bombed again and still there were fleas. we ripped out all the carpet and bombed and fogged again. put in new carpet, and moved in. cat was instantly infested. it was horrible.. it wasn't just us and the cat, we had small children that were covered in fleas every time they sat down! horrible. took her to be dipped and bombed the house one more time while she was gone, she got the "program" stuff you mix with food and eventually the fleas went away.

last year the cats we have now got fleas.. and it took some time to notice because they're black, we didn't notice til they started jumping on us. they got some kind of stuff you put on their necks from the vet and the fleas went away pretty fast (it wasn't a whole house infestation this time.. the vet stuff on their necks and frequent vaccuuming took care of it).

edit: there's a thread in hot deals with some places you can get those vet flea remedies like advantage for less than it costs to get it at the vet.

anno

 

[iwearnosox]

Call now and order.

Stuff works awesome.

 

[Jugernot]

Make them join a circus...

 

[wnied]

One can of Raid Flea killer, and an hours time, as well as a visit to your local Vet, will take care of your apartment flea problem.

~wnied~

 

[Encryptic]

Originally posted by: shuttleteam
Advantage

Go to your vet and ask for it. It's expensive (3 month supply is typically $40) but well worth it.

Getting rid of the animal will not get rid of the fleas! YOU will become the host and suddenly you will notice the fleas 10x more than you did when you had your animals! :Q

Advantage works. Been using it for years. Never see a flea on either the cat or dog.

-DAK-

What he said. This stuff works good.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Advantage works really well. I wouldn't put a flea collar on the cat. I was feeding one of my neighbors cats for them while they were out of town and they had flea collars on. One managed to get the collar stuck in its mouth while it was cleaning itself and was going NUTS. I got the hell scratched out of me trying to cut that thing off it. Now you could wear a couple though to keep the fleas off .

 

[virtuamike]

When my cat had fleas, I went shock and awe on the apt, bombed the crap out of all the rooms. Gave my cats flea baths, gave them flea collars, and vacuumed like mad. Oh, and if you're worried about fleas in your vacuum, toss like a small piece of flea collar in the bag, that'll take care of them. A little chunk of flea collar in the garbage helps too. I live on the 2nd story so it's a little better being up high.